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to come across to us. It took three and a-half hours to complete the crossing and to reload the camels on the Ordos side. The river banks on the Alashan side are low, those on the Ordos shore some 10 feet high and inclined to erumble.
The country on the Ordos side is bleak and desolate and only scantily covered with a low scrub, never more than 2 feet high. We first made our way to a lamasery 2 miles away and tried to get a little extra transport, for our camels were thoroughly exhausted and we had been obliged to trudge for several days already. We were unsuccessful in obtaining any animals here, but we found an excellent tract leading due east through the centre of that portion of the Ordos country which is marked on the map as the Desert of Knzuptehi. Travelling by this road is comparatively easy, and carts could comfortably make use of it. The road ascended gently from the Temple for some 2 miles, and then ran over slightly undulating country without a tree or shrub standing on it.
The aspect is, however, almost entirely green, for a light vegetation almost covers the gravelly soil. Except for a few ponies grazing occasionally, there was no sign of life anywhere to be seen. Except at the regular wells, it is impossible to find water, and the traveller has to pay attention lest he should, by attempting to travel too quickly along the road, allow one well to pass, and then fail to reach the next one by the time he may have need of water; and to find oneself in the Kuzuptchi Desert without water in the heat of June would be almost death. The wells are, however, unmistakable along this road. The first one, some 13 miles from the ferry, is simply a hole by the side of the road. There are no habitations of any kind in the neighbour- hood, so it is essential to carry some kind of vessel for drawing up the water. The ponies and other animals which roam the steppes come to these regular wells once a day, usually in the evening, to be watered, so the ground all round the holes is much littered with filth and the water probably contaminated.
In the afternoon we were overtaken by very curious weather. Heavy dark clonds drifted towards us from the north-west. The cloud area was some 30 miles long and several hundreds of feet high. It had every appearance of being the worst dust storm ever experienced, and, as it advanced slowly, enwreathing the ground, we felt the atmost anxiety, for a bad dust storm in these districts means the effacement of all footsteps, with the possibility, after it has passed, of losing oneself in a waterless desert. As the light breeze drove the clouds in front of it, these at times opened and disclosed a dense blackness behind. In entire contrast, there was nothing but the fairest of blue skies to be seen elsewhere around us. The darkness slowly rolled towards us, and, contrary to expectations, brought little wind with it. What wind it did bring was a steady cold current from the north-west. The cloud slowly swallowed us up, the intensely dark portion lasting a quarter of an-hour, and being followed by a lighter portion. It was one and a-half hours before the cloud had completely passed and before the sun was shining as before. By sunset all was still and peaceful again. It is difficult to say what the composition of the fog was, for it resembled dust and yet none fell. It had entirely the appearance of a bad London fog, without the disagreeable taste of the latter.
June 11.--The road continued as yesterday, over rolling gravel downs lightly covered with a low vegetation.
An hour after starting, we passed another well on our right. By its side were encamped a large party of Mongols-men and women, pilgrims from the Wutaishau. Some four and a-half hours later we passed another well on our left. There were a few Mongol "yourts some distance to the right, and thither we made our way and spent the night, being very hospitably received. The inhabitants were busy taking the hair off their goats, and made anxious inquiries after the agent of a foreign firm at Tien-tsin who had hitherto come once a year to buy the goats' hair from this neighbourhood. This district is administered by a relative of the Royal House of Hangkin, who came to call later in the day. He was unable to read my passport, but recognized the seal of Wai-wu Pu. I begged him to send me a couple of camels for a day, if he could do so, and he not only agreed to this, but said he would accompany me part of the way.
June 12. We left Schabe Toloher in an easterly direction, and soon rejoined the excellent track which we had left yesterday, reaching a well after ten hours' march, during which we had perhaps travelled 22 miles. A Mongol, coming down to the well to water a herd of camels, was invited by the Mongol official to lend us two beasts and to accompany us on the morrow for a stage. This the Mongol was perfectly willing to do. Close to the well are some remains of buts dug out of the earth by the liquorice-root hunters, who come here in the spring.
June 13.--We continued east, and rejoining the track, passed another well on the road half-a-mile later. A few hours later we descended on to the small depression of Bayin ussu ("wealth of water "), where is another good well. Leaving this, we reached
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in the early afternoon a Chinese liquorice camp known as Habachi. This camp is in existence for five months every year, and in the neighbourhood the valuable root grows profusely. Some fifty or sixty Chinese coolies are employed, with a manager to supervise them. A good coolie earns 20 cents (4d.) a-day, a poor worker 8 to 12 cents a-day, but it depends on how much opium they smoke. Food is given them free. The roots are brought in daily, weighed by the manager, who pays the worker according to the amount collected.
The roots are then stripped, sorted, and made up into bundles for carriage by cart 70 miles to the river, and thence by boat to Tutschöng, where dealers come from far to buy it. The root is sent to Tien-tsin, Newchwang, Manchuria, and all China. The bundles are of 200 cattics weight each, and are sold for 8 tacls (24s.) apiece, of this sum 1 tael 20 cents is paid to the King of Hangkin as royalty. The young plants are left untouched. All the coolies here are Shansi men. The Mongols are too lazy to hunt for
the roots.
Crossing a short stretch of bare sand drift and passing up a shallow valley full of reedy grass and covered with saline efflorescence and traces of former lake-beds, we passed one and a-third hours later, a mile to the left, the lama temple of Scharatemetu; two hours later the road dropped into the old dry lake-bed known as Dabassunnoor, round which there are said to be a great number of Mongol yourts. We pitched our tents for the night at Schilinghoto. In the moonlight the lake-bed resembled a vast sea; it is however entirely dry, though it is said to contain a little water after the rains. No rain had, however, fallen for over two years.
Eighty families are said to make a living by extracting salt from the lake; curiously enough, they are all Mongols, but, as may be supposed, there is little labour attached to the work. The salt is merely taken from the surface and is not cleaned in any way. Mongols send for it trom a great distance. One-tenth of the proceeds derived from the work go to the Prince of Nangkin as royalty, and he is said to derive an income of 800 taels (1204) annually therefrom. The work is administered by a "Salt Sea" yamên on the east shore.
June 14.-Crossing the head of the lake, here a mile wide (the length of the lake appears to be about 5 miles) we turned south along the east shore as far as the yamên, a small stone building, and then turned east again over rolling country with occasional stretches of bare sand drift. In the late afternoon, from two “obos," which mark the highest point of a small ascent, we obtained a fine view towards the Muniula range on the other side of the Yellow River. We descended to a more fertile country, with water evidently near to the surface, and at 5 P.M., crossing more bleak sand-hills, fell into an oasis where liquorice hunters were tying up their bundles preparatory to returning to camp.
No habitations being in sight, we pitched camp by the side of the well they had dug. June 15.-Passing over desolate country we reached a narrow trickle of water at 10.30 A.M., known as the Ulan erge gol, with a Lama temple of the same name hard by. Crossing the gol we had a longish climb up the other side to get out of the valley; half-way up the ascent there is a tedious stretch of sand-hills. At 2 P.M. we passed a large Mongol farm known as Sul yen ching. This was the last Mongol house we were to see for some time, for, on crossing a dry lake bed at 2.30, we came ten minutes later to the Chinese inu of Sul yen ching. We were now in the territory of the Prince of Talat. The Chinese settlers pay a land tax to the Chinese Government who remit the same to the Mongol owners. A Chinese tax collector makes his round twice a-year. The inn-keeper here has land a mile square to cultivate, and pays 5 taels (15s.) a-year for it. The land is poor and only grows millet and beans. The settlers pay no taxes of any kind to the Talat Prince direct.
From now on we saw nothing but Chinese farms; very little land in the neighbour- hood of these is, however, cultivated, and the soil looks unproductive. In the late afternoon, we crossed a curious deep narrow gully in which trickles the Badhung ho and slept the night at a wretched settlement of some dozen houses, known as Badung, on the other side. The inhabitants of the district talk gloomily of being obliged to emigrate elsewhere, if the drought which has lasted several years, lasts much longer.
June 16.--For the first mile a long line of farms was on our left, and there were At 8.30 AM, many poor attempts at cultivation, but the land appears to be burnt up.
we had a difficult descent into a broad ravine, the Ba dun buluk, some 200 yards wide and 50 or 60 feet deep. A curious feature of this ravine is that its western bank is entirely sand drifted, while there is no trace whatever of sand on the eastern side. There is no stream in the gully, but the ground is marshy in places. Climbing out of this, we had shortly afterwards to cross a stretch of saud-hills blown into curious shapes by the winds. Fortunately, the crossing only lasted three-quarters of an hour, for the heat of the
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